Road ‘improvement’ costly excavation

After suffering through all the road construction on the Old Glenn Highway between the Matanuska and Knik River bridges, I am baffled by what has been accomplished.

We now have a paved path, which I assume is only for non-motorized traffic. Given the lack of bikes and pedestrians on the existing gravel/dirt path, I wonder what the cost per use for this improvement is?

A great many beautiful trees and lush vegetation was chewed up and replaced with massive ditches for runoffs that the road never experiences. Was the objective to slow the occasional moose down before it crosses the road or to destroy the front yards of all those homes close to the road?

I was hopeful when I saw that the power poles were being moved over, but amazed that the road is still two lane and still without any emergency shoulders. With all that wasted space, if you have a blowout or slide on ice you better be able to keep your car on the road or risk a horrible result in those drainage ditches.

And the way the road was surfaced will not reduce the rate of future repairs. What were the road engineers thinking? And how much did this dirt moving exercise cost?

Emily Northam

Butte